3382) Methodology Of Taner Akçam

The expanded English edition of German sociologist Taner Akçam’s last book, The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity. The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, was published last April. To analyze all the distortions, falsifications and other flaws of this book would mean writing a whole volume. However, some significant examples can be provided here.

Mr. Akçam alleges (p. 203) that “the clearest statement that the aim of the government’s policies toward the Armenians was annihilation is found in a cable of 29 August 1915 from Interior minister Talat Pasha to the province of Ankara.” In fact, this telegram is mostly a list of interdictions of any violence against the displaced Armenians. Especially, the telegram says: . . .

“The transfer of Armenians, which is desired to be carried out in an orderly and prudent manner, should henceforth never be left to the individuals having fanatical feelings of enmity and that the Armenians, whether or not subject to relocation, will be definitely protected against any assault and attack.”

The “military courts” were promised for the recalcitrant people (Hikmet Özdemir and Yusuf Sarinay, Turkish-Armenian Conflict Documents, Ankara, 2007, p. 235).

Similarly, Mr. Akçam claims that the note of Minister of Interior Talat to Grand Vizier Sait Halim sent on May 26, 1915 “has never been completely translated into modern Turkish,” which is false (Özdemir & Sarinay, pp. 55-56; pp. 58-59 for the English translation). More seriously, Mr. Akçam alleges (pp. 136-137) that this document is “the clearest possible refutation of the official Turkish version of the events of 1915, which insists that the policies toward the Armenians were the result of the wartime exigencies. On the contrary, Unionist policy was aimed at resolving the issue of Armenian reforms in a definitive manner.” To come to such a conclusion, Mr. Akçam cuts out several paragraphs of the document, which unequivocally present the relocation as measure decided chiefly because of “armed attacks on security forces and armed uprisings.” For instance (my emphasis):

“Unfortunately, while the means to bring about a final solution to this problem [by reforms] is being worked out, some of the Armenians living in places close to the battlefields have recently become involved in activities aimed at creating difficulties for our army in its fight against the enemy to protect the Ottoman borders. Those Armenians are trying to impede the operations of the army, and the transfer of supply and ammunition. They are combining their aspirations and activities with those of the enemy’s and are fighting against us in the ranks of the enemy. Within the country, they dare to carry out armed attacks against the military forces and the innocent civilians, to become involved in acts of murder, looting and plundering in the Ottoman cities and towns, to provide supplies to the enemy’s navy and to inform them of the places with fortified posts. The conduct of such rebel elements has rendered it necessary to remove them from the area of military operations and to evacuate the villages serving as operational bases and shelters for the rebels.”

The allusion to the reforms proposed in 1914 is only incidental and not the reason given by Talat for the relocation decision.
Taner Akçam also removes the reference to the protection of relocated Armenians, especially this sentence:

“A decision has been taken to ensure the comfort of those subjects on their way to places allocated for their resettling. To ensure the subjects arrival at the resettlement places, and facilitate their rest, and protect of their live and properties on their journey.”

A third striking example of deliberate and serious distortion is the willing mistranslation (p. 208) of a telegram sent by the minister of Interior Talat to the governor Mehmet Resit on July 12, 1915 (my emphasis):

“In Mardin the Armenian bishop and some 700 persons from among Armenian and other Christian population were taken outside the city and slaughtered like sheep by some persons arrived from Diyarbekir.”

Actually, the document says:

“Particularly, from individuals sent from Diyarbakir recently, it has been learnt that in Mardin, a total of seven hundred people consisting of Armenians and other Christians, also including the bishop, had been taken from their houses at nights and killed by beheading like sheep.” (Özdemir & Sarinay, p. 161).

This document was published as early as 1995, with a transliteration. In 2007, a translation into modern Turkish and into English was published. In 2008, Yusuf Halaçoglu denounced Taner Akçam’s mistranslation in the Turkish edition of the book. Regardless, it is maintained in the edition in English.

Mr. Akçam does not refrain from relying on completely discredited material, like the “Andonian documents” (pp. 268 and 272) and the so-called “Ten Commands” attributed to the CUP (p. 197). It has been proven since 1983 that the “Andonian documents” are fakes, and I devoted a 59-pages article to demonstrating it again (Maxime Gauin, “Aram Andonian’s Memoirs of Naim Bey and the Contemporary Attempts to Defend their ‘Authenticity’”, Review of Armenian Studies, 23, 2011, pp. 233-292). It has been proven by Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer since 1973 that the “Ten Commands” are apocryphal, and were not taken seriously by the British authorities (Gwynne Dyer, “Correspondence,” Middle Eastern Studies, IX-3, 1973, pp. 378-379). Dr. Dyer replied to the pro-Armenian author Christopher Walker, who, having read the response, did never use the “Ten Commands” anymore. Even worse, Mr. Akçam relies on the translation of this “document” by Vahakn Dadrian, who adds words (“commit massacres”) which are not actually in the “original” (on this point: Ferudun Ata, “An Evaluation of the Approach of the Researchers Who Advocate Armenian Genocide to the Trials Relocation,” in The New Approaches to Turkish-Armenian Relations, Istanbul: Istanbul University Publications, 2008, p. 560).

Mr. Akçam also distorts material that is already questionable in itself, i.e., the partial accounts of trials which took place in Istanbul from 1919-1920. Mr. Akçam fails to explain how credible these tribunals were, and how they banned the right of cross-examination, the right to be assisted by a lawyer during the investigation and, from April to October 1920, the simple right to hire a lawyer. He fails to explain how the reliability of the newspapers of Istanbul in 1919-1920 (the original material is completely lost); they were submitted to censorship, and the French military in Istanbul complained several times about unsubstantiated rumors and selective information published by at least some of these newspapers. Worse, Mr. Akçam invents (pp. 414-415) a confession by Officer Yusuf Riza. He purely and simply inverts the sense of the published account (see Erman Sahin, “Review Essay: The Armenian Question,” Middle East Policy, XVII-1, Spring 2010, p. 153; this article is a devastating, 20-pages long, analysis of the first version, in Turkish, of The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity).

Certainly, a better knowledge of Turko-Armenian history is needed, but for that, we need historians.

Maxime GAUIN* - Contributing Analyst, Strategic Outlook
*He is a Ph.D. candidate at Middle East Technical University History Department.

11.12.2012

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Source:http://www.strategicoutlook.org/

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3. Video: Taner Akcam Story: From Terrorist To Armenian Propagandist
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12. Inventory By Taner Akcam

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Comment by Sukru S. Aya, Istanbul, 12.12.2012



Direct Link To The Document

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Case Of Altug Taner Akcam V. Turkey Updated 24 June 2013


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3355) The Filiations of Taner Akcam / Some Examples Of The Method Used By Taner Akcam

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The Filiations of Taner Akcam by Attala AKIN

Some Examples Of The Method Used By Taner Akcam by Maxime Gauin

Comments By Sukru Aya & League of Nations Sourced – REPLY on HOLOCAUST Charges

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Unlike his great-grand-son Taner, Communist leader of 70 years, the Armenian Agop does not believe in Marxism or communism ...

We (Turkey Info News - www.turquie-news.com) invite you to discover the translation of an article that illuminates much about the profile of Taner Akcam. True "historian mercenary", Taner Akcam is presented by Armenian fanatics as . . "a courageous Democrat Turkish openly recognized the Armenian genocide." Of course, specify that Taner Akcam is a salaried member of the influential Armenian foundation Zoryan or he was a prominent figure in the ultra-left military in Turkey is not to their taste, political correctness.

According to Abdullah Ocalan (PKK leader), close to Taner Akcam many years, it would be "a renegade with bloody hands." Ocalan goes even further. It presents him as a character disorder and unscrupulous, who would have "one foot in Yerevan, and the other in America," before concluding, for final settlement, "this man is dangerous."

We understand why Armenian nationalists prefer to keep silent on this obscure man of Armenian descent

Do you know why the Armenian activists who are always inclined to attribute an Armenian descent to Turkish personalities, conceal the Armenian origins of Taner Akcam?

The Armenian Agop is a wealthy landowner who lives in the village of Valei Ahalkeleki region on the border between Georgia and Armenia. Unlike his great-grand-son Taner-Communist leader of the 70 -, Agop, close to the Mensheviks, believes neither in Marxism or communism.

Agop, who will take the Muslim name of Hasan to flee persecution Bolsheviks, perish during looting and atrocities committed by them. His son Eyüp, who had also taken a Muslim name, finds refuge with his wife of Georgian origin and her children in Ardahan (Turkey) by mixing with Turks fleeing the Bolshevik army.

Eyup, nicknamed the "Mad", then chooses as a guide for activists Dashnak committees and thus contributes to the massacres of thousands of Turks and Kurds.

In 1928, no longer having the support of irredentist Armenians, who fled after the proclamation of the new Turkish Republic, it will be executed for treason and participation in the massacres committed against the Turks by foreign armies.



The grand-son, Taner Akcam, was born in 1953 in the village of Ölçek in Turkey. Dursun Akcam his father-son-of Eyup, born 1927, migrated with his family in Ankara. Taner grew up in the neighborhood Demirlibahçe, where his father taught Turkish at the college. During these years, Dursun Akcam became friends with Baykurt Fakir, a teacher at the school S,afaktepe. Deleted and no character in childhood and adolescence to Demirlibahçe, Taner becomes the butt of his comrades who often target of their taunts. Later, during his studies at the University ODTÜ (Technical University Middle East) in Ankara, he joined the association ODTÜ-DER where he will claim "anti-nationalist and democratic", while concealing its origins Ethnic he considers to be a handicap.

Increasingly active in revolutionary movements as communist ADYÖD, GENÇ-DEV or DEV-YOL [1], he is the champion of anti-Turkish nationalism among younger generations. Taner Akcam, who has seduced and deceived many young people within the movement-DEV GENÇ, never misses an opportunity to vindicate the "Pride NOT BE TURKISH". In March 1976, when he became one of the executives of the armed movement of DEV-YOL far left, he was arrested and sentenced to nine years in prison for open conflict with the Turkish Nation and the State.

However, with the help of accomplices, he managed to escape March 12, 1977 and requested political asylum in the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) with a false passport. Arrested for illegal entry into the German territory, it is hosted for three months by the Secret Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) in this country. Here, Taner Akcam, the revolutionary dogmas consists of members of the BND "experts" of Turkey and minority rights, paving the way for his career.

After a few months in Germany, he obtained political refugee status, then German citizenship [2] by enrolling in a language school in the state of North-Rhine - Westphalia. In December 1977 he was appointed to the Free University of Berlin as an assistant to Tessa Hofmann [3], a known expert in the analysis of conflicts of minorities in Turkey and the Caucasus who has published a thesis on the political German expansionist in the Caucasus region and particularly in Georgia, a country familiar to Taner Akcam since his ancestors were from Armenian ...



The wizard Akcam, assimilating eagerly indoctrinating German, in 1986 received a fellowship from the Institute of Social Studies in Hamburg. At the same time, the famous Professor Fischer, and BND officer who worked on topics such as the Euxine, and the Lazistan Çamlihemsin (note: on the southern coast of the Black Sea in Turkey), is harnessed to pervert Turkish illegal workers, from the East Black Sea, to spy on behalf of the BND, promising them "worker visas" in the FRG. At this time, Akcam, in collaboration with Fischer contributed to unrest in this region of Turkey by conducting espionage against the Turks in their own country.



In 1998, Akcam was panicked, when Fisher was arrested in possession of secret documents in the north-eastern Turkey. In retaliation, he proposes that the BND to establish a list of academics of Turkish origin living in Germany to stop them, agrees that the BND. In parallel, the German secret services control to Taner Akcam, against payment under the cloak, "studies" on "Violence in Turkish history," "torture in Turkish culture" and the "Armenian genocide". This is Tessa Hofmann, also a member of the BND and a team of the Hamburg Institute who were in charge of establishing research subjects.

Thanks to his thesis on "torture in Turkish culture," Taner Akcam and his weapons and will prove his academic abilities and his loyalty to the German line. This earned him swiftly to become employee of the Institute of Social Studies in Hamburg.

With the support and the maneuvers of the BND, Akcam easily obtained, and miraculously, the title of Doctor at the Institute for her study: "The Armenian issue, the trial of Istanbul and the Turkish national movement."

In 2001, while preparing his thesis lecturer on the topic of "Turkey and the Eastern Question" with a grant from the so-called "Hamburg Foundation" which promotes Science and Culture, he acquired great esteem among nationalist organizations of the Armenian diaspora and German secret services, saying with verve and with finality: "I will prove that Turkey is a state without a people."


There, also, interesting and surprising in this case, it is the personality and activities of Tessa Hofmann, a professor at the Free University of Berlin and the BND agent. A true guru of Akcam and has, on the one hand, distributed known errors that contained Taner Akcam's research and other sponsored it with the support of the German secret services. Tessa Hofmann is an honorary member of the Union of Armenian writers and, as Pastor Lepsius, she says the Armenian massacre was the first systematic genocide of the twentieth century [4]. It also claims that "genocide" would have been an example for the genocide of Jews by the Nazis, adding to this indictment that the gas chambers were created, also for the first time, by the Turks. The origin of these theses is silly to look deep into the German will to get rid of guilt and a diversion on the issue of genocide of the Jews, by throwing a spotlight of shame on the Turks. This will is expressed, explicitly or implicitly, by various means. Thus, in its desire to restore his dignity, Germany is targeting the Turks and Turkey.

Under the terms of Hofmann, Unionists formed a group and rabid racist (in his book The Human Rights and the Armenian problem, Taner Akcam discusses openly and in a partisan manner, matters relating to the Union and Progress and Turkism (pages 96-209)). Mustafa Kemal is promoted as "the killer of more than two million Armenians and Greeks", about the Armenian activists, they are neither more nor less than "heads of families who fought with desperate courage." Still according to Hofmann, the cities of Van, Erzurum, Bitlis, Trabzon, the regions of Karabakh and Nakhchivan, would be part of the Armenian homeland. In the days following the publication of the book's dark Hofmann, the Karabakh region was overrun by Armenian troops. Moreover, after defining the Turkish-speaking Muslims as Tatars, she says that they attacked the Armenian minority in the Caucasus, killing and plundering those who lived there. Turning to the massacres of Susa, Aghdam and Fizuli committed by the Armenians, it justifies them, saying, "wars have their own logic bloody." That, the application of the principle that the best defense is attack, so it was of strategic importance to seize Susa, which was, according to her, once, an Armenian land.

In the books of Akcam, except recurring references to Hofmann, the German pastor Lepsius is also one of missed sources. The books of this pastor, Andonian [5] or Hovanissian, only pro-Armenian, without moderation defaming the Turks and their government, are the product of resentment and hatred, they have even slanderous charges unpublished until today. Thus, in his book The Human Rights and the Armenian issue (pages 228-247), he wrote a plan to exterminate the Armenians was decided August 2, 1914, one day after the signing of the covenant with Germany, implemented by the Special Organization Tes,kilat-? Mahsusa Esref Kus,cubas,? of course without ever mentioning the destruction of Russian units in Anatolia and Armenia. The book also claims (pages 248 and following) that Armenians included in the regiments of workers were killed. There is no physical evidence, Talat Pasha is presented (page 286) with certainty as the architect of "genocide." He also argues (page 316) that important documents have been destroyed and that the public would be misled about this.



Edward J. Erickson

Also, Taner Akcam can legitimately be considered the scribbler slanders and lies of Armenian theses. He pretends, for example, to ignore that forced displacement were passive defense measures, therefore, he calls them "massacres". It is, quite simply, the mission he was asked. If he refused to perform it, he could lose support of the Armenian organizations.

In addition, he said (page 544) that Atatürk himself admitted the words "Armenian genocide", without providing any reference or refer to the report by the American High Commissioner Mark Bristol. According to Taner Akcam, Mustafa Kemal takes a particularly sensitive and critical attitude in discussions with representatives of Western countries, about the killings between 1915-17. Thus, he would have admitted to General Harbord's death 800,000 Armenians.

Thus, it is clear that the path, relationships, style and views of Taner Akcam, the Trojan are chosen by Armenian nationalists in the war they are fighting at all costs against the Turks. The author certainly bears a Turkish name, but does not consider himself as a Turk.

Taner Akcam is the result of a triple parentage:
- Turkish parentage is affirmed but instrumentalized,
- His family is Armenian descent but hidden,
- His identity is ideological affiliation but politicized.



Gocek, Richard Hovannisian, Elif Safak and Taner Akcam

Nevertheless, history meets on 1 March 1921, in the words of Mustafa Kemal allegations of Akcam and his cronies on the Turks:

"Gentlemen, I want to remind you that in order to break our determination and faith, while the sad events inside the country continued on the outside, our enemies did not cease for a moment their pressure and their terrible provocations. In the West the Greeks in the south the French who armed themselves and drove the Armenians against us, in the East in the occupied areas, massacring Armenians in Armenia and committed abuses against the Muslim population ... The greatest misfortune that we imposed the year just ended was the Treaty of Sevres. Gentlemen, despite the efforts of our enemies for a year, today the decrees of the Treaty of Sevres are no longer either in fact or law.

Gentlemen, among the defeated countries in 1918 only Turkey was able to reach this goal, thanks to the strength of his armies and his political vision. Our enemies continue in the regions they occupy, to kill, to oppress, plunder our deport citizens and deprived of any means of protection, despite these injustices non-Muslims who are within the territories under the authority of the Government of the Turkish Grand Assembly without fear and live in safety under the protection of our laws and our forces.

Although the propaganda say French, American, Armenian, Greek, German and the rest of the Western world, younger generations will never forget nor Turkish these historical truths, or the betrayal of those who supported and nurtured by foreign imperialist forces, to Like the Muslim fundamentalists have become enemies of the Turks, those will drown in your contempt. "

Read also:
- "Armenian Cause" and terrorism
- Hereros: The first genocide of the 20th century

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Notes

[1] The Genç Dev / Dev Yol / Dev Sol / DHKP-C is a manufacture of Soviet secret services, who have repeatedly tried to destabilize and then bring out the Turkey of the 1960s to the 1980s (Claire Sterling, The Network of Terror. Survey on international terrorism, Paris, Jean-Claude Lattes, 1981, p. 229-237), generating the far-left terrorist group, ASALA, the CJGA (terrorist wing of the FRA, created by Congress in 1972, which formalized the tilting of the Dashnak the Soviet side), then the PKK.

In 1985, the World Congress of the FRA decided to place one of its priorities, working with the Turkish extreme left, preferably terrorist. In 1928, a congress in Baku was attended by Kurdish nationalists, the Armenian nationalists and Kurdish antikémalistes, under the Soviet, the Soviet-Turkish relations have experienced a brief crisis in 1928-1929.

[2] Taner Akcam has dual Turkish and German citizenship, which is forbidden. This fact alone is a strong indication corroborating its close ties with the BND.

[3] Tessa Hoffman participated in the so-called "Permanent Peoples' Tribunal", in 1984, which "condemned" the "Armenian genocide". The presiding judge was François Rigaux, former president of the Belgium-Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge defenders in Belgium). Tessa Hoffman's contribution was "the German eyewitnesses", especially Armin Wegner, Ms. Hoffman presented as a leading indicator.

However, in 1993, Tamcke Martin, professor at the University of Göttingen, published a study on devastating Wegner, relied on the personal archives of it (Armin T. Wegner und die Armenian: Anspruch und eines Wirklichkeit Augenzeugen, Cologne, Cuvillier , 1993, revised and expanded second edition, Münster, LIT, 1996). Since then, Ms. Hoffman has done a coaster, first in a book (Armin T. Wegner. Writer and Photographer of Eyewitness Armenian Genocide, Yerevan, Apaga, 1996), then in an interview with Guenter Lewy in 2001 in Berlin , where it has come to recognize that Wegner was a source devoid of reliability (Guenter Lewy, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey, Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 2005, p. 304, n. 22).

Ms. Hoffmann has also republished the trial records of S. Tehlirian, assassin, in 1921, Talat Pasha. For the cover, she found nothing better than a painting made in 1872 by Russian artist Vasilli Vereshcagin: a pyramid of skulls symbolizing the horrors of the Franco-Prussian war of 1871, this painting was frequently presented in the 1980s, as a photograph of the remains of the Ottoman Armenians (Türkkaya Ataöv, Armenian Forgeries, New York, Okey, 2008). Ms. Hoffmann finally recognized the manipulation at the time of the case Perinçek.

[4] Selecting the facts in an unacceptable manner, it denies so shameful and perverse, the genocide of the Hereros (people of Namibia) by German colonial troops in Namibia in 1904.

[5] proved false according to historians.

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Translated via Google From Source
Please feel free to submit a better translation

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Les filiations de Taner Akçam: Turkish Version Of The Article : Taner Akçam’in Soy Kökeni

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Some Examples Of The Method Used By Taner Akcam
May 16, 2012, by Maxime Gauin

the USAK received a copy of the latest book by the German sociologist Kurdish-Armenian ancestry Taner Akcam, called The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity. The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire. Before writing a report for the Journal of Turkish Weekly, I started to browse the book, I already knew by the report's devastating Erman Sahin, dedicated to the Turkish version, shorter of this book. I have not had time to get into a detailed analysis - especially since it will be dosed between what has been said and what will be more like the original comment - but I can not resist the temptation give some examples of particularly significant.

Pages 203-204, Mr. Akcam says that "the clearest statement, showing that government policy [CUP] vis-à-vis the Armenians [during WWI] was to their annihilation is in a telegram August 29, 1915 sent by the Interior Minister Talat Pasha in Ankara province. [...] This document alone should put an end to long and unnecessary debates on this issue. "

Therefore include the telegram, in full:

"The Armenian question which arose in the eastern provinces is resolved. [However], there is no damage to the image of our nation and our government by acts of cruelty no need no justification. In particular, the recent attack took place against the Armenians near Ankara has caused much regret to the Minister, who found that the event occurred following the obvious incompetence of the officers charged with overseeing the transfer Armenians, and the audacity of police and locals, who acted according to their animal instincts, raping and robbing the Armenians. The transfer of Armenians, which must be applied in order and with caution, should never in future be entrusted to individuals motivated by a fanatical hostility, and Armenians - as those transferred than other - have to be protected against any aggression against any attack. In places where such protection could not be ensured, the transfer must be postponed. From now on, officers in charge [of transfer] will be held accountable, given their rank, any attack would happen, and returned to court martial. It is necessary to give strict orders in this regard, the staff concerned. "

Reference: Yusuf Hikmet Özdemir and Sar?nay, Turkish-Armenian Conflict Documents, Ankara, Grand National, 2007, p. 235.

Mr. Akcam was right about one thing: this statement is clear.

Trying to prove - which is completely untrue - that the Catholic and Protestant Armenians were subjected to forced displacement General, Mr. Akcam argues, in particular (p. 378), that "the new order was definitely not retroactive but applied only to Armenians who have not been expelled and deported '. "

Therefore include the entire document:

"The purpose of the transfer of Armenians to places where they now live to some areas is determined to end their attempts and their activities against the government, that is to say, to render it impossible to establish a independent Armenia [the Ottoman territory]. Since there is no intention to annihilate the Armenians, it is absolutely necessary to protect the lives of those transferred in convoys and to take all measures to provide food rations during the trip, the cost for it to be assumed immigrants by the fund. It is also necessary for the authorities, to the exclusion of those whose relocation was decided, the Armenians, especially those related to soldiers, as shown in the previous order, as well as artisans, Protestants and Catholics, will be left on their current place of residence.

Regarding those who attack the convoys, steal goods and dare to violate the Armenians, acting according to animal instincts, and also in respect of officials and police who have initiated such attacks, judicial investigations must begin immediately so that they are severely punished, without showing any leniency whatsoever in their favor. These officials will be immediately removed from office and sent to court martial. In addition, their names will be reported. In case of such attack, the administration of the province will be held responsible. "

Hikmet Özdemir and Sarinay Yusuf, op. cit., p. 237.

Mr. Akcam distorted in two ways and this telegram:

a) Stating that the exemption no longer applied only to Catholics and Protestants left: it applies to these categories in general, and also the artisans and to the families of soldiers.

b) Taking orders for no very clear against any criminal act.

Still on exemptions from forced displacement, Mr. Akcam intends to prove that if they were not respected in Adana, it is the fault of Talat, who lied to the German representatives. He quotes the ambassador Acting Hohenhole. However, as indicated by Guenter Lewy long before the book appeared Mr. Akcam, Hohenhole explicitly rejected the idea that Talat should seek to deceive the Germans, concluding that if the exemption were not met, it was subsequently at the initiative of local officials untimely and uncontrolled. Indicates that also exasperated Mr. Lewy not being obeyed, Talat expelled Adana three leaders who ignored his orders and, accordingly, the U.S. Consul Nathan forced displacement from Adana came to an end (Guenter Lewy, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey, Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 2005, p. 185-186).

Mr. Akcam also states (pp. 414-415) that "at the seventh session of the same trial [a trial by court martial held in Istanbul under occupation of the Agreement, in spring 1919] [...] Yusuf Riza [former officiates Special Organization, OS], faced with irrefutable documentation too, was forced to admit that the CUP Central Committee and the systems have played an important role in the various crimes committed in time of war against the Armenians and other. "

However, as indicated, references in support, Mr. S,ahin in the article that I mentioned above (and which appeared in English in 2010, two years before the English edition of the book):

a) No document was produced at the seventh session;

b) Far from making the confession attributed to him that Mr. Akcam, Yusuf Riza said he was "unable" to answer the question of whether the OS really participated in the forced displacement, and has clearly stated that nobody among the central committee members of the UPC, was involved in the process of forced resettlement.

Page 197, Mr. Akcam refers to the "Ten Commandments" attributed to the UPC, whereas there is evidence that since 1973 it is an apocryphal text (Gwynne Dyer, "Correspondence," Middle Eastern Studies, IX-3, 1973 pp. 377-378). Mr. Dyer responded to the author proarménien Christopher Walker, who had referred to this text. After reading the response, Mr. Walker has never referred to the "Ten Commandments" as a proof.

Also include Donald Bloxham, staunch supporter of the qualification of "Armenian genocide":

"The most serious historians consider this document as to authenticity at best questionable, and it is probably a fake. [...] He who has given this document to the British sold them in February 1919, a time when many false documents were outstanding. "(" Donald Bloxham Replies ", History Today, No. LV-7, July 2005).

Moreover, Mr. Akcam refers to the English translation of Vahakn N. Dadrian, who adds words ("commit massacres") that are not in the 'original' (see on this Ferudun Ata, "An Evaluation of the Approach of the Researchers Who Advocate to the Armenian Genocide Trials Relocation" , in The New Approaches to Turkish-Armenian relations, Istanbul, Istanbul University Publications, 2008, p. 560).

Yes, how can you resist?

Read also:
- The affiliations of Taner Akcam

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Translated via Google From Source
Please feel free to submit a better translation

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Comment By Sukru Server Aya

1- Thanks to all contributors of this illuminative article and Mr. Gauin for added comments..

2- Regarding the unfounded/fabricated/stale charges of genocide or other bilateral atrocities, I ask all parties who still speak of an act of genocide (which could not physically even had happened and there is no evidence of any sort) to refer to my attached reply and openly inform the readers if they now know anything better about truth, compared to what the most authorized personality, General Secretaries of the League of Nations had written down about a century ago!

3- Open Call to all concerned: It is either that the League of Nations was wrong when they lived and resolved the incidents a century ago, or you are ridiculously inverting and distorting "pyramid-strong documentary evidence".

This invitation to belie my document stands free to all parties, scholars, writers, speakers, etc. etc. WORLD WIDE.

Who is lying, me, or the documents or those who still shamelessly fabricate stories?

Respectfully
S.S. Aya

League of Nations Sourced – REPLY on HOLOCAUST Charges:

c. Let us get records straight from the desk of the most authorized body, the “League of Nations”:

Doc. 1- Posting # 3099) If Armenians Fight With Us Against The Turks, We Promise To Give Them National Home, Liberty And Independence



Doesn’t this monumental document tell “how innocent Armenians were, and how and why 200.000 young Armenians sacrificed their lives”?

Enough is enough gentlemen, read well before you start lecturing nonsense.

d). Now let us see the second document confirming . What do you believe; your imagination and palavers or the plain monumental documentation?

Doc. 2:
“League of Nations” - Important Documents
“University of Bradford” Armenia and the League of Nations
Documents from the United Nations Library, Geneva; League of Nations Archives Collections

Copy of “Note Verbal” by Secretary-General Sir Eric Drummond, dated March 1st, 1920.

Page 2: “Further, in Turkey, minorities were often oppressed and massacres carried out by irregular bands who were entirely outside the control of the central Turkish Government.

CONCLUSION: I repeat my posting “Admit Facts and Shut up” for those who do not like to read: http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2008/10/2610-genocide-lies-need-no-archives.html

Respectfully,
Sukru S. Aya

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3291) Scholars To Sue Taner Akcam For Singling Out Names

Updated Related posts:

1. Video: Taner Akcam Story: From Terrorist To Armenian Propagandist
2. armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2010/03/3023-review-essay-armenian-question-by.html
3. armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2009/01/2698-review-essay-scrutiny-of-akcams.html
4. armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2009/03/2777-minnesota-university-taner-akcams.html

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Vercihan Ziflioglu

Leading Turkish historian on controversial Turkish-Armenian history, Taner Akçam is being taken to court in the US for singling out several Turkish and American academics for Armenian nationalist attack. “Armenian genocide issue is an extremely political field, yet I didn’t share any explicit names,” Akçam says

Several academics have filed a U.S. lawsuit against Turkish historian Taner Akçam, who is known for his research on the Armenian issue, alleging that the scholar put them at risk of an Armenian nationalist attack following a speech last month.

“I merely shared a piece of information, which I had picked up [earlier,] during a speech I was delivering on the current state of affairs in Armenian genocide studies. I did not name any names and explicitly stated I did not want to leave anyone under suspicion,” Associate Professor Akçam from Clark University’s Department of History recently told the Hürriyet Daily News by email.

Akçam gave a speech at a conference at Arizona’s Glendale Public Library on June 14 during which a number of academics claim the historian singled them out as targets for extreme Armenian nationalists.

A Turkish political science expert from Utah University, Professor Hakan Yavuz, will be leading the suit on behalf of Professor Guenter Lewy from Massachusetts University, Associate Professor Edward Erickson from Virginia Marine Corps Command and Staff College and Associate Professor Jeremy Salt, who is currently working at Turkey’s Bilkent University.

During the speech, Akçam said he shared information given to him in December 2010 by a person who asked to remain anonymous that alleged that the Turkish Foreign Ministry was handing out hefty sums to academics to convince them to produce arguments to counter Armenian genocide claims stemming from World War I.

“I merely shared a piece of information; I wanted to provide a sample of how politics interferes in the academic sphere. Frankly, I have yet to understand [on what charges] they will be suing [me,]” Akçam said.

“My source said the documents received [by certain academics] in return for the money paid by the Turkish Foreign Ministry are [located] in the archives. I repeat once more; it is a journalist’s task to research this matter. I only transmitted the information. A journalist who was present at the conference made news out of [this] subject,” Akçam said.

Yavuz did not respond to questions posted by the Daily News via email.

Taner Akçam said he thought the information passed on to him by his source was safe, a factor which persuaded him to share it with his audience.

“Hakan Yavuz is a person with dubious credibility. I have yet to understand why he took [my words] upon himself. What he has said is so lowly as to not even warrant a reply,” he said. “The Armenian genocide is an extremely political field; politics is directly interfering with academic work. Armenian genocide studies have to cope with two distinct problems: One is about questions and problems [raised by] academic research itself, while the other [concerns] problems that emerge due to direct intervention by politics. The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s intervention is among the samples I have cited for this second category,” he said, adding that all he did was to repeat an ordinary fact that was already known to everyone else.

“One needs to rethink about things if the information supplied to me by my source is correct,” he said.

“I say it is necessary to re-examine because the activities undertaken in the U.S. by the Turkish Foreign Ministry must seriously be re-examined,” he added.

Hurriyet Daily News, July 15, 2011
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Comments:
Judges no violence is future, 2011-07-16
It is good that conflicts are solved in courts instead of violence, threats etc.

Patreas, 2011-07-16
Ha! and this guy calls himself an academic?An academic 'shares' with the public anonymous information received from a 'trusted source' . . .

Tert.am
A number of Turkish and U.S. intellectuals intend to sue Taner Akcam, a Turkish lawyer who openly acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. In his interview with the Turkey-based Vatan daily, Dr. Hakan Yavuz of the University of Utah said that he is one of the intellectuals Akcam charged with being bribed by the Turkish authorities.

They get their salaries from the university, but they know about Akcam's sponsors, Yavuz said. Akcam has made them a target for Dashnaks and Hnchakyans, and their life is in danger now, Yavuz said. So the intellectuals decided to go to law.

Akcam is sponsored by the Armenian Diaspora, particularly by a department opened due to the Armenian Diaspora's efforts, whereas the intellectuals in question are paid by American universities and have nothing to do with the Turkish foreign office, Yavuz said. As to being academically biased, it is Akcam's activities that should be called into question, Yavuz said

Prof Akcam Reveals Turkish Plan to Pay Scholars to Deny the Armenian Genocide
July 13, 2011
By Harut Sassounian

Prof. Taner Akcam dropped a bombshell during a lecture at the Glendale Public Library last month, when he revealed that a confidential source in Istanbul had informed him about the Turkish government’s scheme to bribe American scholars to deny the Armenian Genocide.

Dr. Akcam, holder of the Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., stated that "the Turkish government is following a very systematic and aggressive policy in the US," by attempting to cast doubt on the veracity of the Armenian Genocide. Ankara’s grand scheme is to make Turkish denialist claims as widely acceptable as the belief that the events of 1915 constituted genocide. Moreover, through a series of lawsuits in US courts, Turkey and its proxies are trying to present any criticism of denialist scholars and exclusion of revisionist materials from university programs as suppression of "academic freedom."

Prof. Akcam, one of the first Turkish scholars to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, related to his audience that during his visit to Istanbul last December, he had a private conversation with a person who had "inside information" regarding the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s activities in the United States on subject of the Armenian Genocide. Dr. Akcam’s confidential source told him that sometime in 2004-2005, an American university professor had met with "authorities connected with the Turkish Foreign Ministry." At that meeting, the professor told his Turkish hosts that "Turkey didn’t have a systematic program on the academic level with which to counter the claims of an Armenian Genocide," and that "the genocide claim is well established at this point," telling them that "there’s very little" they can do "by trying to confront it head on."

Dr. Akcam was privately informed that the American professor made the following recommendation to Turkish officials: "The thing you need to do is to dig a ditch in front of all the genocide claims; you need to create doubt by writing scholarly works which will awaken that doubt." Dr. Akcam interpreted these words to mean that "by producing and encouraging new academic works," American scholars could "normalize the idea that 1915 was not genocide, just as the belief that it was genocide has become accepted."

While it is commonly assumed that the Turkish government provides financial incentives to scholars worldwide to publish articles and books denying the Armenian Genocide, this is the first time that a knowledgeable Turkish insider has confirmed these assumptions. The confidential source told Dr. Akcam that the Turkish Foreign Ministry accepted the American scholar’s proposal and "transferred large sums of money to the US." The informant revealed to Dr. Akcam the names of American academics who received funds to write books denying the Armenian Genocide, and disclosed that "there are documents signed by their own hand and that these receipts are now in the files of the Foreign Ministry’s records."

In his lecture, Dr. Akcam stated that he did not want "to put any academic under a cloud of suspicion." However, when he connected the information received from his Istanbul source to some recent publications, "a disturbing picture emerges as far as Armenian Genocide research is concerned."

Dr. Akcam then referred to Michael Gunter’s recent book, "Armenian History and the Question of Genocide," as a possible "example of this approach." The website of the book’s publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, stated: "Although as many as 600,000 of them [Armenians] died during World War I, it was neither a premeditated policy perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government nor an event unilaterally implemented without cause. Of course, in no way does this excuse the horrible excesses that were committed."

Prof. Akcam further observed that the four academics -- Hakan Yavuz of University of Utah, Guenter Lewy of University of Massachusetts, Jeremy Salt of Bilkent University, Ankara, and Edward J. Ericson of Marine Corps Command & Staff College, Virginia -- who praised Gunter’s book, "are well known for their denialist position and works regarding the genocide of 1915." Although Prof. Akcam did not wish to make "an accusation against the book’s writer," he stated: "the strange similarities between what I was told in confidence in Istanbul and what appears on the jacket cover of that book gave me pause, that’s all."

While no one should accuse academics of receiving funds from the Turkish government or its proxies without solid evidence, it would be enlightening if any of them would voluntarily come forward and disclose whether they have been funded by Turkish sources!

Source: http://hetq.am/eng/opinion/2876/


Reply By Sukru Aya





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Comments From:

Asbarez
Halo says:
July 12, 2011
The Passage…*
“Although as many as 600,000 of them [Armenians] died during World War I, it was neither a premeditated policy perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government nor an event unilaterally implemented without cause. Of course, in no way does this excuse the horrible excesses that were committed.”
*
… is very important because it is an example of how the Turkish government with its paid “historian prostitutes” of America is trying to take out the *legality* out of the genocide (by making it not pre-meditated). Why is this important? Because then the Armenian Genocide will be a footnote in history and Armenians will have no case for reparations and we can all kiss our western provinces goodbye. When this happens, the Turks will shed crocodile tears along with Armenians every April 24, knowing they have successfully gotten away with the biggest crime in Human history.

Armen Medicarefraudyan says:
July 15, 2011
And who is making these bias one sided claims? Some professor, who was busted for being a former Radical Leftist, who got arrested in Turkey in his 20s for spreading communist propaganda and was plotting to blow up Ambassor Komers limousine and his leftist terror group THKP-C, was responsible for many plots to bomb and attack American targets. He will pay for his terrorism all over Turkey. Oh, and yeah, he had links with the PKK as well. Then he ran like a coward to Germany and became a puppet of Vahan Dadrian. This is Taner Akcam, a communist terrorist masquerading as a “human rights activist.”

Viken Karapetian says:
July 12, 2011
I’m surprised this is news. It was my belief that the Turkish government paid “scholars” to deny the Armenian Genocide, whether by funding trips, paying speaking engagements, or help publishing books. See: Sam Weems, Justin McCarthy.

Sergik says:
July 13, 2011
This article should be broadcasted in newspapers and T.V.s in the US in whichever way possible as a counter measure against Turkish goverment activities.

Mego says:
July 13, 2011
Why the Turkeys goverenment, and it’s paid lobbiest, academics and foreign politicians want to sink beneath Adolph Hitler, who did not deniey the Armenian Genocide, and used it as an example to the german nation to murder six million innocent Jews.

Random Armenian says:
July 13, 2011
“While it is commonly assumed that the Turkish government provides financial incentives to scholars worldwide to publish articles and books denying the Armenian Genocide, this is the first time that a knowledgeable Turkish insider has confirmed these assumptions. ”

Although it would not be the least bit surprising, you need more than this to expose it. You need hard evidence, as mentioned in the last paragraph. Otherwise you’ll get sued. And I would love to have to see such evidence expose the Turkish government. I wish I knew how to make this happen.

Hrant K. says:
July 14, 2011
The early symptoms of the implosion of the turkish denialistic taboo cracks are beginning to appear!

necati says:
July 15, 2011
you know why akcam hates Turkey ? Because his citizenship was cancelled. he has no home !!! poor man !!!

Armenian Weekly
Greg Arzoomanian
July 15, 2011
What’s the bombshell? The Turkish Government has more or less openly announced that continued funding of Institute for Turkish Studies grants is contingent on the people running it (and presumably receiving the grants) toeing the denialist line.

topix.com
OguzTolga
Taner Akcam has been credited as the first Turkish "scholar"
(that word is in quotation marks because real scholars dispassionately consider all sides of a story) to have used the word "genocide" to describe the Armenian events.

A leftist revolutionist who advocated violence and who was imprisoned for terrorist activities, Akcam escaped from jail and later reinvented himself as a scholar, focusing on the one-note Armenian "Genocide" as his bread-and-butter.

His mentor was Vahakn Dadrian, and the way was mysteriously paved for Akcam to become a perpetual "visiting professor" in the USA.

(American immigration officials are usually very picky, often frowning on those with criminal records.)

While there are no major disagrements between the master propagandist and his obliging student, Akcam has reportedly disappointed Dadrian in not going far enough with established genocide principles.

At times, Akcam has even broken with his master; he rejects the Andonian forgeries, for example, while Dadrian once hugely embarrassed himself in an attempt to legitimize them.

Moreover, Akcam does not currently appear to subscribe to the traditional theories as to why the Ottomans should have exterminated the Armenians, principally the theory of pan-Turanism, the idea of Turkifying the ethnic groups of the Empire.

(Although earlier in his career, specifically with his "The Genocide of the Armenians and the Silence of the Turks," Akcam was very much part of the genocide choir, gung-ho for all the "pan" words.

This is the relatively brief paper, by the way, where Akcam repeated the "genocide" word an unbelievable 64 times.)

Akcam makes extensive use of Master Dadrian's dizzying, one-sided research over the many years..

Dadrian does not feel it beneath him to occasionally cite Akcam (as an example, Dadrian threw Akcam a footnoted bone in America and the Armenian Genocide of 1915), but it's becoming apparent the master propagandist feels a good degree of disrespect for his protégé.

Dadrian reportedly does not feel Akcam has what it takes to share the stage with Dadrian.

(Although it may be argued Dadrian's ego is large enough where his contempt is not reserved strictly for Akcam.

Example: in a 2005 interview, Dadrian was asked about his "recent lifetime achievement award," and Dadrian's response was, "Which one there are many," going on to further gush over himself.)

Taner Akcam therefore suffers in some genocide circles, regarding his academic credibility.

In a battle with the Turkish Historical Society's Prof. Kemal Cicek (analyzed below), Akcam has been characterized as a "village idiot" among some of his peers.

Taner Akcam will forever have the stigma of being a stooge for the Armenians, and such status can never bode well for the integrity and recognition he must crave.

Taner Akcam will forever have the stigma of being a stooge for the Armenians, and such status can never bode well for the integrity and recognition he must crave.

Currently, as reported by one of his younger colleagues from the genocide club, one of Akcam's sources of financing is the prominent Cafesjian Foundation (www.cafesjianfoundation.org/ )

This Armenian foundation, according to the report, is partly responsible for the payment of Akcam's upkeep at his current headquarters, the University of Minnesota.

Now this is different than the Turkish government's providing grants to establish Turkish studies departments in universities, because once the grant is given, educators in these departments can go in any direction they please.

However, if Akcam were to begin reporting true history that is critical of the Armenians, it would very likely be the quickest way to kiss this foundation money good-bye.

How is Akcam struggling against being perceived as an object of ridicule?

He is using the one asset going for him, his "Turkishness." With the knowledge of his homeland's language and customs, and with the help of pro-Armenian bases within Turkey (Armenian and leftist media outlets, along with a network of like-thinkers in the mode of Halil Berktay), Akcam has a better finger on the "genocide developments" in the country which allows him to go on a plane of attack not easily available to his genocide cronies.

Having learned well from his Armenian master, Akcam appears to be concentrating on "seek and destroy" missions.

He is looking at the historical truths that expose the holes in the "Armenian genocide," and attempts to throw Dadrian-style smokescreens at these truths.

(Thus, the relocation exemptions granted the Armenians, for example, become "legends," as in the title of one of his works, examined below.)

He zeroes in on the small errors of the Turkish academicians doing research in this area, knowing full well that these handful of scholars are comparative neophytes to Akcam's firmly established genocide forces.

(The forces that have scared practically all the neutral non-Turkish scholars away, with their awful smear campaign tactics.)

Because he can't deny the forest of truth, Akcam's plan is to set isolated fires in the weedy areas, all in the time honored pro-Armenian practice to detract and confuse.

With each attempt, he is further withering the minute traces of credibility some people would still like to accord him... but what else can he do? He has to justify his propagandistic existence somehow.

Unfortunately, hardly anyone dissects the writings of these ethically-challenged "genocide scholars," and thus people like Akcam keep getting away with murder (quite literally, in the "Rufmord" meaning of the word)... particularly since the genocide industry runs practically unopposed (who will argue with anyone who speaks against genocide?

We all know genocide is "bad"), and the false "Armenian Genocide" has become the accepted wisdom throughout a lazy-thinking and/or bigoted world.

On this page, some of Akcam's works will be analyzed, exposing his degree of honesty and scholarship.

A Shameful Liar: Taner Akcam

In early 2007, Taner Akcam got personal, charging the Turkish government and its fascist citizens of conducting a campaign against him, wrongly portraying him as a "terrorist" and as a "propagandistic tool of the Armenian.

" Do his claims have merit?

A Major Whopper of the "Shameful Liar"

There are some historical facts that are just so totally obvious by now, they should not be challenged by even the most diehard propagandists. But some are so "shameful," they go on challenging them anyway.

A recent article exposes Taner Akcam with a major whopper.

""""" 31.450 emails to ""LIAR-MENIAN GENOCIDE ""museum in a week."""" """"" """"" """"" """"" ""

Last news from LiAr-menian Genocide Museum after my open letter to honorable armenians to ask ''if they have a single document in Yerevan Museum of empty hate"".

Amatuni Virabyan
Received 2.345 emails asking if they have any original documents about the So-Called lie Genocide.
She sent only 546answers.

Sonya Mizayan
Received more than 3.500emails in last week but answered only 1.234 and said '''NO I am sorry but we do not have any original documents"""

Hranush Hakobyan(Minister of Bulshits)
Received 5.607 email from Liar-menians abroad and sent no messages as responce.secretery of the Minister resigned.

Arevik Avetisyan took his vacation for 30days.But his mailbox is full with more than 20.000email asking ""why did they fake a nation ""for 96years.

I will let you informed about the total emails they received again next week.
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3175) Video: Taner Akcam Story: From Terrorist To Armenian Propagandist

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Related posts:

http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2010/03/3023-review-essay-armenian-question-by.html

http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2009/01/2698-review-essay-scrutiny-of-akcams.html

http://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2009/03/2777-minnesota-university-taner-akcams.html

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3105) Dear Taner Akcam,

Image Source

I would like to point out that the expression in your book “we are debating the fact that about 1 million Armenians have been annihilated” does not agree with information I have obtained from other sources. However, while examining this subject, I ask you to accept up front that it would never reflect reality to understand this as an effort to minimize the issue by making a discount in the number of people alleged to have been “annihilated” or to show as acceptable massacres and murders which are certain to have taken place at various locations...

In fact, if genocide is the issue, then it is certain that the number of losses is not going to change its character. On the other hand, if a subject is being debated, it should be accepted that the numbers given have to reflect the truth, and that in a discussion which starts out with the wrong numbers one cannot arrive at a correct solution.

Since there is no declaration in your book regarding the losses of Ottoman Moslems, estimated to be around 2.5 million, naturally my letter will not get into this subject, but will discuss only the Armenian losses.

It is obvious that, in ascertaining Armenian losses, the healthiest approach is to compare the population at the beginning of the events with that remaining at the end of the events.

The Armenian population living within the borders of the Ottoman State has been declared by various sources for the years 1893, 1905, and 1914 as:

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3069) Dear Taner Akcam,

Again in your book _1915 Writings_, I have read the criticism and analysis you have directed against various native and foreign authors, and have witnessed your knowledge of the subject. I have to state that I have found the criticism and analysis you have directed especially towards Prof. V. Dadrian’s book _Collected articles – Book 1 – Institutional Roles in the Armenian Genocide_ particularly praise-worthy in terms of objectivity. You have made the observation that, while Dadrian brought clarity to “what happened”, his head was confused on the subject of “why”. I am hoping that the several notes I am making below, again without following a chronological order, on the subject of why the relocation decision was taken, will help Prof. Dadrian get over his confusion and will help you think the subject over one more time: . .

Sydney Whitman: “I asked English Consul Mr. Graves: ‘Would you think there would have been any massacres if Armenian revolutionaries had not come to the country and incited the Armenian people to revolt?’. He replied ‘Certainly not! Not a single Armenian would have been killed.’”

Report of English Ambassador Henry Elliot to the Ministry, dated December 1876: “The Patriarch answered that the people were very excited, and he stated that, if a revolt were necessary to draw the attention of the European states, there was no difficulty in starting such an activity.”

Summary of English Ambassador Layard’s telegram on the occasion of thePatriarch’s visit of March 17, 1878: “The Patriarch was saying that last year they had no complaints of Turkish administration and they preferred to remain under Ottoman rule … however that the situation had changed when the Russian victory became conclusive, that Armenians were very angry with him because he had previously been against the Russians, and that they could even stone him.

… He was saying that if they could not obtain their demands by way of European intervention, that they would apply to Russia and would continue their agitation until being annexed by Russia.”

The program established at a 1982 meeting of the Dashnaksutiun:
To organize armed bands
To increase revolutionary activities making use of every recourse
To arm the populace
To establish revolutionary committees
To incite fighting
To provide for transportation of people and arms
To destroy government institutions

William Langer: ” One of the revolutionaries told Dr. Hamlin, the founder of Robert College, that the Hentchak bands would 'watch their opportunity to kill Turks and Koords, set fire to their villages, and then make their escape into the mountains. The enraged Moslems will then rise, and fall upon the defenceless Armenians and slaughter them with such barbarity that Russia will enter in the name of humanity and Christian civilization and take possession.’ When the horrified missionary denounced the scheme as atrocious and infernal beyond anything ever known, he received this reply: ‘… We are desperate. We shall do it.’”

Founder of the Dashnaksutiun and the first Premier of Armenia, Katchaznouni: “…. In the Fall of 1914, Armenian volunteer units were formed and they fought against the Turks. It could not be otherwise, as for roughly a quarter of a century the Armenian society had been fed with a particular and inescapable psychology. It was necessary that this state of mind manifest itself, and what had to happen did.”
Declaration of Armenians living in Marseilles dated August 5, 1914: “... No Armenian weapons should be turned towards our second motherland France or its allies and friends…. Register as volunteers in the armies of France and its allies.”
Rafael de Nogales: “After hostilities had actually commenced, the Deputy to the Assembly for Erzerum, Garo Pasdermichan, passed over with almost all the Armenian troops and officers of the Third Army to the Russians; to return with them soon after, burning hamlets and mercilessly putting to the knife all of the peaceful Mussulman villagers that fell into their hands.”

M. Philips Price: “When the war started, the Armenians in this region secretly contacted the Russian officials and … volunteers began to be sent to the Russian army.”

Felix Valyi: “In April, Armenian revolutionaries under the command of Aram and Vardan, took the city of Van… On May 6th, they delivered to the Russian forces the province of Van, cleansed of Moslems.”

September 18, 1914: From Bitlis Governor Mustafa Bey to the 3rd Army Command: “According to decisions taken and suggestions from Armenian community leaders, if there is war the Armenians in the army will pass over to the Russian side together with their weapons. If the Ottoman Army advances no action will be taken, if it retreats armed bands will be formed and movements to and from the front will be hindered.”

October 23, 1914 report from 3rd Army Command to High Command: “In Kagizman, about 800 persons, most of whom are army deserter Ottoman citizen Armenians, have congregated. The Russians are arming these.”

In November, the Ottoman Empire is at war.

Numerous communications through April 1915, about armed band movements and raids…

Telegram of April 22, 1915, from the governor of Sivas to the Ministery of the Interior: “Many contraband weapons and much ammunition has beeen found in searches conducted within the province. It has become certain from statements by the caught suspects that, in this province, Armenians have armed 30,000 people, that 15,000 of them have joined the Russian Army, and that the remaining 15,000, in case of lack of success by the Turkish Army, will threaten our army from the rear.”

The governor of Diyarbakir writes the following on April 17, 1915: “Searches have ben conducted in Diyarbakir for army deserters, weapons, and ammunition. As a result, many weapons, much ammunition, military clothing, and explosives have been found. From Armenian komitajis, even at the province center more than 1,000 deserters have been apprehended.”

This is the internal situation going into May 1915, and the Russians are advancing in Eastern Anatolia. The English and French are landing at Canakkale with the world’s greates armada, and the Canal operation is in progress in the South.

May 2 communication from acting commander-in-chief Enver Pasha to the Minister of the Interior Talat Pasha: “The Armenians around Lake Van and in locations known by the governor of Van are continuously grouped and ready to continue with their revolt. I am of the mind that these grouped Armenians should be moved out of these areas so that this source of revolt is broken up. According to intelligence given by the 3rd Army Command, the Russians have pushed Moslems within their borders in through our borders in a miserable and wretched condition. Both to reciprocate for this, and to achieve the goal I have mentioned above, it is necessary either to send these Armenians and their families into the Russian borders, or to disperse these Armenian families to various places within Anatolia. I would like to request that the more feasible of these two options be chosen and put in operation. If there is no drawback, I would prefer that the families of rebels and the population in areas of revolt be sent outside our borders, and that, in their stead, the Islamic people who arrived from outside be settled within our borders.”

And in May 1915, the Ottoman Government made the decision of “Relocation and Re-settlement”.

In the light of these documents and information, I would now like to direct to you several questions:

Is there anything surprising in me joining the observation that the decision of relocation was a proper one as concerning the Turks, as, among many other foreign authors, the Dashnak leader Katchaznouni also stated in the Dashanksutiun Congress of 1923?

Can you reproach me for believing that it does not conform with scientific truth and reality to try to explain the relocation decision as one “taken years ago by the Unionists to annihilate the Armenians in order to Turkify Anatolia”, to equate it with a “spirit of violence”, and to claim that it is because “genocide is a sub-element of the Ottoman Turkish culture”; and for believing the documents and the information as well as the statements of many historians and authors that this was a decision “taken purely for military and strategic reasons”, and that it was an act of self-defense?

Can it be expected that we should believe in claims that “the Unionist planned many years ago to annihilate the Armenians and relocated them for the purpose of destroying them” after having read Enver Pasha’s letter of May 2nd?

If the Armenians, instead of having been relocated to the South, where there were no battles, with the more humanitarian approach having been chosen, had been exiled to the front and regions of battle, as the Russians did to one million Moslem people, since today you do not speak of Russians having committed genocide, would you have proposed that the Ottomans committed genocide?

If annihilation was the purpose of the relocation, would the relocation not have been finished in two months, as the Russians did, not in the nine months it actually took.

Even if one-hundreth of the savagery and massacre scenes described in detail by yourself as well as Prof. Dadrian in terms of “what happened” were true, just as it is obviously impossible that any Turk with the smallest amount of conscience and fairness would approve, can it also be approved that those who gave rise to the events described above, while the Anatolian population was in a life or death struggle against the most powerful armies of the world on several fronts, be presented as “a handful of romantic youths fed up with being misled about reforms”?
Certainly the events related to the documents listed above cannot be accepted as reasons to commit genocide or in defense of genocide. On the other hand, is it acceptable that both you and Prof. Dadrian have handled these events as not ever having happened and as if these realities did not exist when claiming that the relocation decision was taken for the purpose of genocide, since these distance your readers from understanding the truth?

I would like to bid you farewell with a final future letter on your declarations on population and resolution.

Orhan ARASLI
Retired Economist

Address:
Acibadem cad. No:156 / 4
Uskudar / Istanbul / Turkey .

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3032) Halacoglu Is Responding to Taner Akcam

by TruckTurkey

TARAF 29th of May,2008 - [Click for Turkish]

Yusuf Halacoglu Responding

Dikran M. KHALIGIAN from Armenian National Committee indicated in a . . . documentary filmed in 2003 that the archives of Dashnak Sutyun were being prepared to be opened and that Dashnak Sutyun was in the process of presenting the archives to 3rd parties. He also indicated that the access to the archives was limited up until that time and permits were required to have access to them. He explained the reason for this limited access by indicating that the documents were very old and valuable and that some precautions had to be taken to preserve them before they were public use.


‘I am sending this response in relation to the accusations and claims directed against me as well as the questions asked in the article printed in Taraf newspaper on 25.05.2008 under the name of ‘Forget about the Armenian Archives, look at your own Ottoman Archives’. I would like the response to be printed with the same page and font formats if possible.’

I have been receiving positive feedback from different regions about my offer of giving USD 20 million to Armenians in return for access to their archives. This offer was published in Hürriyet newspaper on 20th of May, 2008 as a headline news. If we are to investigate events of 1915 on a proper basis, then Dashnak and Armenia archives as well as other Armenian archives in Jerusalem should be opened and investigated. Third party archives are as important as these aforementioned archives with regards to this matter though. Up until now we have seen pressure only on Ottoman Archives to be opened but not on any other archives. Then why has noone spoken of also opening Armenian archives as they represent the other side of the story? In a historical investigation, anyone very well knows that all related documents should be checked and analyzed in order to investigate objectively all sides of the story. At this stage, Ms. Hür questions what use Dashnak archives are to me. Whatever you are hoping to find from Ottoman archives yourself is applicable to the same extent to Dashnak archives, I am hopeful that I can reach very valuable information in these archives and Dashnak papers and documents in Russian archives presently support my position. Meanwhile, Ms. Hür is talking about the inappropriateness of my offer. I had difficulty in understanding why my offer was inappropriate. Why is offering financial support for the classification of these archives inappropriate? I think she has her own reasons for not supporting the idea of opening of these archives. I do not know about that, however if we are to contact with our Armenian colleagues and other Armenians on the subject matter, it is vital for all archives to be opened without hesitation to the service of all researchers from all around the world. Anyone should be able to confront history without fear. On the other hand, despite the disclaimer of Diaspora indicating that the archives in Boston are open to everyone, many people and foremost Ara Sarafyan indicate that the archives are open only for limited use by specific people.

Also in a documentary filmed by TRT in 2003, consulted by Prof. Dr. Kemal Çiçek from our institution, Dikran M. KHALIGIAN himself from Armenian National Committee indicated that the archives of Dashnak Sutyun were being prepared to be opened and that Dashnak Sutyun was in the process of presenting the archives to 3rd parties. He also indicated that the access to the archives was limited up until that time and permits were required to have access to them. He explained the reason for this limited access by indicating that the documents were very old and valuable and that some precautions had to be taken to preserve them before they were public use. So he gave the signal of the archives to be opened in a very short period of time. In the same documentary Mr. KHALIGIAN also indicated that there was need of a considerable amount of financial support for the classification of the archives. As you can see from this, noone other than Armenians or a few people supporting their thesis could make any research on the archives. You can not conclude that the archives are open by just the investigation and analysis of five researchers on the archives. Also in order for us to talk about archives being open for public use, it means that all papers and documents of the archives should be open. However it was announced that only four volumes of these archives were open. Let alone these volumes not having been presented to the whole science world, we do not know whether they include selective documentation. Despite all this, Ms. Hür supports Taner Akçam passionately by claiming that Ottoman Archives are closed or selectively presented and meanwhile she can not help but admit that she also benefited from Ottoman archives.

The claim of the Ottoman archives being sorted out and selectively presented creates a funny and ridiculous position today. If so, why did not the British claim such a thing during occupation of İstanbul, especially in a time when they were desperately after finding evidence to trial Malta deportees? Can these claims be just second guesses or predictions? We should not rule out other reasons if we consider that the newspapers back then had got financial support from various countries. Also Ottoman correspondence language and bureaucracy should be very well known in order to be able to understand whether Ottoman archives were sorted out . To know these things very well requires a considerable amount of time being devoted for investigation of Ottoman archives. People devoting such time to investigate Ottoman archives very well know that letters sent from central administration had been sent to many places and even if the ones kept by the central administration had been destroyed, this case is not applicable to the ones kept by local authorities. As a matter of fact, Prof. Dr. Selim Deringil indicated in a dialogue with Mr. Safa Kaplan which was printed in Hürriyet newspaper on 25th of April, 2005 that the Ottoman archives could not have been possibly sorted out. Same thing was indicated by Prof. Dr. Şükrü Hanioğlu. It is also quite a show of prejudice to indicate that it is almost impossible to investigate ATASE Archive. I suggest she makes a formal application to request such investigation.

Ms. Hür is claiming that even after the Ottoman archives were sorted out(!), what is left in the archives are alone enough proof for the so called genocide by basing her claims on Taner Akçam’s book called ‘Armenian Issue is Resolved’. However when the documents used in the book are compared with the originals of those documents, it will be clearly seen that the claims of Mr. Akçam are baseless. The two examples that I will be giving are perfect proof of how these documents had been distorted. The first example is related to a telegraph registered under DH. ŞFR. # 55/290 and where Mr. Akçam took the name of his book from. Mr. Akçam is trying to condition the reader that all Armenians had been killed by selectively referring to a sentence in the telegraph. The sentence in the telegraph is as follows: ‘The Armenian issue in the eastern provinces has been resolved’ (p. 182). However Mr. Akçam is just taking some part of the sentence and he is stating that ‘Armenian issue is resolved’. The reason why he is cherry picking some part of the sentence is because he is trying to prove that all Armenians in the country at the time had been attacked and had been victims of a genocide. Also he did not make any reference to other parts of the telegraph in his book where indeed the real striking sentences were included and he did not mention in his book why this telegraph had been written in the first place. When we investigate the telegraph with the dignity of a scholar, we see that some Armenians around Ankara were raped by some officers in charge of the relocation, gendarme or by public and rapers were also committing theft to satisfy their lower selves. The telegraph continues to indicate the sorrow the Ottoman Ministry was feeling because of these incidents. This means that let alone murdering or massacring Armenians, Ottoman authorities were very upset because of these incidents and orders were issued indicating that necessary precautions should be taken to prevent these types of incidents in the future. As a matter of fact, 146 people who were said to get involved in these incidents were instigated to military court.

The second example is the reference made to the key telegraph dated 29th of June, 1331 (12th of July, 1915 according to gregorian calender) which was sent by Talat Pasha to the province of Diyarbakır (DH., ŞFR. Nr.54/406). The specific reference was made to the 185th page of the telegraph, where the issue in relation to Diyarbakır and Dr. Reşid was mentioned. Mr. Akçam here again fails to include the most important parts of the telegraph. He interpretes some sentences on the aforementioned page of the telegraph as some Armenians in the province as well as some other Christians from differing sects were being murdered lately and that some people sent from Diyarbakır butchered a total of 700 Christians, Armenians and other including reverends, in the city of Mardin by taking them out of the city. However he fails to include the said sentences in full in his book where he leaves certain parts out which results in misinterpretation of the meanings of the sentences. I included the full version of these sentences in my book called ‘Facts on the Relocation of Armenians’ ( I also included a copy of the telegraph in question at the end of my book). Mr. Akçam, when making reference to the said sentences in Ottoman Turkish on page 185 of the telegraph, fails to include two words (‘ez-cümle ahiren’ / ‘according to this sentence afterwards’) that are indeed on the original sentence, thereby changing the meaning of the sentences totally. He interprets that people sent from Diyarbakır were sent to butcher Armenians and other Christians, however when you continue to read the rest of the sentences you see that the people sent from Diyarbakır were sent to investigate the alleged murders of Armenians and other Christians in the province. Mr. Akçam also misspells the word ‘marhasa’ which means Armenian reverend in Ottoman Turkish by writing it as ‘murahhas’ which means officer or member in Ottoman Turkish. He does this with the intention of trying to get some government officers involved in the matter indeed when the matter did not have anything to do with government officers. In summary, people sent from Diyarbakır were sent to investigate the allegations by consulting Armenian reverends, Armenian public and other Christians in the city. A thorough critique of the book is being prepared by our institution.

Dikran M. KHALIGIAN from Armenian National Committee indicated in a documentary filmed in 2003 that the archives of Dashnak Sutyun were being prepared to be opened and that Dashnak Sutyun was in the process of presenting the archives to 3rd parties. He also indicated that the access to the archives was limited up until that time and permits were required to have access to them. He explained the reason for this limited access by indicating that the documents were very old and valuable and that some precautions had to be taken to preserve them before they were public use.

‘I am sending this response in relation to the accusations and claims directed against me as well as the questions asked in the article printed in Taraf newspaper on 25.05.2008 under the name of ‘Forget about the Armenian Archives, look at your own Ottoman Archives’. I would like the response to be printed with the same page and font formats if possible.’

I have been receiving positive feedback from different regions about my offer of giving USD 20 million to Armenians in return for access to their archives. This offer was published in Hürriyet newspaper on 20th of May, 2008 as a headline news. If we are to investigate events of 1915 on a proper basis, then Dashnak and Armenia archives as well as other Armenian archives in Jerusalem should be opened and investigated. Third party archives are as important as these aforementioned archives with regards to this matter though. Up until now we have seen pressure only on Ottoman Archives to be opened but not on any other archives. Then why has noone spoken of also opening Armenian archives as they represent the other side of the story? In a historical investigation, anyone very well knows that all related documents should be checked and analyzed in order to investigate objectively all sides of the story. At this stage, Ms. Hür questions what use Dashnak archives are to me. Whatever you are hoping to find from Ottoman archives yourself is applicable to the same extent to Dashnak archives, I am hopeful that I can reach very valuable information in these archives and Dashnak papers and documents in Russian archives presently support my position. Meanwhile, Ms. Hür is talking about the inappropriateness of my offer. I had difficulty in understanding why my offer was inappropriate. Why is offering financial support for the classification of these archives inappropriate? I think she has her own reasons for not supporting the idea of opening of these archives. I do not know about that, however if we are to contact with our Armenian colleagues and other Armenians on the subject matter, it is vital for all archives to be opened without hesitation to the service of all researchers from all around the world. Anyone should be able to confront history without fear. On the other hand, despite the disclaimer of Diaspora indicating that the archives in Boston are open to everyone, many people and foremost Ara Sarafyan indicate that the archives are open only for limited use by specific people.

Also in a documentary filmed by TRT in 2003, consulted by Prof. Dr. Kemal Çiçek from our institution, Dikran M. KHALIGIAN himself from Armenian National Committee indicated that the archives of Dashnak Sutyun were being prepared to be opened and that Dashnak Sutyun was in the process of presenting the archives to 3rd parties. He also indicated that the access to the archives was limited up until that time and permits were required to have access to them. He explained the reason for this limited access by indicating that the documents were very old and valuable and that some precautions had to be taken to preserve them before they were public use. So he gave the signal of the archives to be opened in a very short period of time. In the same documentary Mr. KHALIGIAN also indicated that there was need of a considerable amount of financial support for the classification of the archives. As you can see from this, noone other than Armenians or a few people supporting their thesis could make any research on the archives. You can not conclude that the archives are open by just the investigation and analysis of five researchers on the archives. Also in order for us to talk about archives being open for public use, it means that all papers and documents of the archives should be open. However it was announced that only four volumes of these archives were open. Let alone these volumes not having been presented to the whole science world, we do not know whether they include selective documentation. Despite all this, Ms. Hür supports Taner Akçam passionately by claiming that Ottoman Archives are closed or selectively presented and meanwhile she can not help but admit that she also benefited from Ottoman archives.

The claim of the Ottoman archives being sorted out and selectively presented creates a funny and ridiculous position today. If so, why did not the British claim such a thing during occupation of İstanbul, especially in a time when they were desperately after finding evidence to trial Malta deportees? Can these claims be just second guesses or predictions? We should not rule out other reasons if we consider that the newspapers back then had got financial support from various countries. Also Ottoman correspondence language and bureaucracy should be very well known in order to be able to understand whether Ottoman archives were sorted out . To know these things very well requires a considerable amount of time being devoted for investigation of Ottoman archives. People devoting such time to investigate Ottoman archives very well know that letters sent from central administration had been sent to many places and even if the ones kept by the central administration had been destroyed, this case is not applicable to the ones kept by local authorities. As a matter of fact, Prof. Dr. Selim Deringil indicated in a dialogue with Mr. Safa Kaplan which was printed in Hürriyet newspaper on 25th of April, 2005 that the Ottoman archives could not have been possibly sorted out. Same thing was indicated by Prof. Dr. Şükrü Hanioğlu. It is also quite a show of prejudice to indicate that it is almost impossible to investigate ATASE Archive. I suggest she makes a formal application to request such investigation.

Ms. Hür is claiming that even after the Ottoman archives were sorted out(!), what is left in the archives are alone enough proof for the so called genocide by basing her claims on Taner Akçam’s book called ‘Armenian Issue is Resolved’. However when the documents used in the book are compared with the originals of those documents, it will be clearly seen that the claims of Mr. Akçam are baseless. The two examples that I will be giving are perfect proof of how these documents had been distorted. The first example is related to a telegraph registered under DH. ŞFR. # 55/290 and where Mr. Akçam took the name of his book from. Mr. Akçam is trying to condition the reader that all Armenians had been killed by selectively referring to a sentence in the telegraph. The sentence in the telegraph is as follows: ‘The Armenian issue in the eastern provinces has been resolved’ (p. 182). However Mr. Akçam is just taking some part of the sentence and he is stating that ‘Armenian issue is resolved’. The reason why he is cherry picking some part of the sentence is because he is trying to prove that all Armenians in the country at the time had been attacked and had been victims of a genocide. Also he did not make any reference to other parts of the telegraph in his book where indeed the real striking sentences were included and he did not mention in his book why this telegraph had been written in the first place. When we investigate the telegraph with the dignity of a scholar, we see that some Armenians around Ankara were raped by some officers in charge of the relocation, gendarme or by public and rapers were also committing theft to satisfy their lower selves. The telegraph continues to indicate the sorrow the Ottoman Ministry was feeling because of these incidents. This means that let alone murdering or massacring Armenians, Ottoman authorities were very upset because of these incidents and orders were issued indicating that necessary precautions should be taken to prevent these types of incidents in the future. As a matter of fact, 146 people who were said to get involved in these incidents were instigated to martial court.

The second example is the reference made to the key telegraph dated 29th of June, 1331 (12th of July, 1915 according to gregorian calender) which was sent by Talat Pasha to the province of Diyarbakır (DH., ŞFR. Nr.54/406). The specific reference was made to the 185th page of the telegraph, where the issue in relation to Diyarbakır and Dr. Reşid was mentioned. Mr. Akçam here again fails to include the most important parts of the telegraph. He interpretes some sentences on the aforementioned page of the telegraph as some Armenians in the province as well as some other Christians from differing sects were being murdered lately and that some people sent from Diyarbakır butchered a total of 700 Christians, Armenians and other including reverends, in the city of Mardin by taking them out of the city. However he fails to include the said sentences in full in his book where he leaves certain parts out which results in misinterpretation of the meanings of the sentences. I included the full version of these sentences in my book called ‘Facts on the Relocation of Armenians’ ( I also included a copy of the telegraph in question at the end of my book). Mr. Akçam, when making reference to the said sentences in Ottoman Turkish on page 185 of the telegraph, fails to include two words (‘ez-cümle ahiren’ / ‘according to this sentence afterwards’) that are indeed on the original sentence, thereby changing the meaning of the sentences totally. He interprets that people sent from Diyarbakır were sent to butcher Armenians and other Christians, however when you continue to read the rest of the sentences you see that the people sent from Diyarbakır were sent to investigate the alleged murders of Armenians and other Christians in the province. Mr. Akçam also misspells the word ‘marhasa’ which means Armenian reverend in Ottoman Turkish by writing it as ‘murahhas’ which means officer or member in Ottoman Turkish. He does this with the intention of trying to get some government officers involved in the matter indeed when the matter did not have anything to do with government officers. In summary, people sent from Diyarbakır were sent to investigate the allegations by consulting Armenian reverends, Armenian public and other Christians in the city. A thorough critique of the book is being prepared by our institution.

Meanwhile, Andonian papers that were qouted as highly reliable evidences, were proven to be fake by the book called ‘The Real Story Behind the Telegraphs that were Attributed to Talat Pasha by Armenians’ written by Şinasi Orel and Süreyya Yüce (Ermenilerce Talat Paşa’ya Atfedilen Telgrafların Gerçek Yüzü – Ankara 1976). Andonian family immigrated to USA in 1923. You can find their ‘immigration document’ in Appendix 1. You can also find two examples of the telegraphs that are supposed to have been written by Talat Pasha in Appendix 2. However it can easily be understood with even simple eyes that these telegraphs have nothing to do with Ottoman telegraphs, that they are full of errors and that they had been written post events.

I would also like to comment on some of the criticisms of Taner Akçam in relation to some of the issues that were included in my book called ‘Facts on the Relocation of Armenians’. First of all, I published a book to respond to questions and criticims of Taner Akçam. If Ms. Hür reads my book called ‘From Exile to Genocide: A Turk examines the Armenian claims against his country’ (Babıali Kültür Publishing, İstanbul, 5th edition, February 2008, 1st edition by February 2006), she will see clearly that all points and questions of Taner Akçam were answered by related documents. As a matter of fact, it was included in the book that the villains attacking the Armenian convoys being transferred to Syria in 1915, killing people, seizuring their possessions and / or kidnapping women from the convoys were sent to martial court for trial by the order given by Talat Pasha’s himself. 67 of the judged were sentenced to death, 68 were punished by forced labor and / or confined to fortresses and 524 were sentenced to imprisonment for periods between 2 to 5 years with the rulings of the martial court given on 19th of Feb, 12th of March and 22nd of May, 1916. The death sentences were executed and the information and documents related to these were already included in the book. The book also includes a list of how many people from which cities were instigated to courts. To confirm all these, a page of the ruling of the martial court is included in Appendix 3. In this document, it is seen that let alone for killing Armenians, criminals had been sentenced to death for even seizuring Armenians’ possessions. I believe these documents are perfect answers to ‘Akçam is questioning, Halaçoğlu is remaining silent’. Indeed, we gave all necessary answers long before but I guess they did not have the time to read my book for that. The books includes information as to the sources sent from Eskişehir in relation to the ‘Abandoned Property Commissions’ of ‘200,000 kuruş’ and ‘600,000 kuruş’. It should be assessed cautiously why these people who considered the application of these abandoned property commissions not as a government in war trying to preserve the lives of its citizens at all costs but as the government taking possession of Armenian goods and property, were at the same totally ignoring the ‘68 million kuruş’ approved and sent from government budget to Ministry of Internal Affairs for the proper relocation and settlement of Armenians and ’13,467,400 kuruş’ which was sent to Ministry of Health for the same reasons. The cash sent to provinces during the same period totalled ‘3,166,900’. ‘800,000 kuruş’ out of this was from abandoned property commissions. Whom was this amount sent for? This question is answered by the report sent by the then Aleppo consul of US, J.B. Jackson on 8th of Feb, 1916 to Ambassador Henry Morgenthau stating that 500,000 Armenian immigrants had arrived at Aleppo and 486,000 out of this were provided ncecssary care and aid (a photocopy of the report is included in the book). Jackson also included the cities and villages where the immigrant Armenians had been located in his report. The book also includes documents and their numbers which pertain to permits given by Talat Pasha to foreign charities in relation to the aids to be provided to Armenians in need. They also ignore the fact that Ottoman government allocated daily wages to Armenian migrants of ‘3 kuruş’ for the adults and ’60 para’ for the children, just for the sake of trying to prove a so-called genocide. We see that this allocation was also mentioned in the letter sent to Ambassador Morgenthau by Dr. W. M. Post working in an American hospital in Konya, as ‘1 kuruş’ to adults and ’20 para’ to children.

Meanwhile people who are making such claims, first and foremost Ms. Hür, should be well aware of the meaning of the word ‘genocide’. They should be well aware that seizure of Armenian possessions or exiling Armenians do not constitute a genocide. They should be well aware that by claiming that Ottoman archives had been sorted out or cherry picked, they can not prove a genocide. And of course they should also be well aware that the mere fact of some Armenians losing their lives do not constitute a genocide. Can the documents in the ‘League of Nations’ archives in Geneva proving that 1,200,000 Armenians were living after WW1 (the ones living under different identities are excluded) or the letter sent by Boghos Nubar Pasha, the chairman of Armenian National Delegation, to French Minister of External Affairs stating that they fought alongside with Entente Powers and that they lost many Ottoman Armenian soldiers fighting in French, English and Russian armies be ignored? How are the riots and uprisings of Armenians back then that were also mentioned in French and Russian archives going to be explained? And unfortunately it should also be assessed carefully why these ‘informal’ historians are not responding positively to the request of us, we the ‘formal’ historians, whereby we request to be able to openly discuss the issues with all historians whether Turkish or not or we request to be able to make researches together. But most importantly, they need to be able to answer our questions as listed below:

1. Had Armenians rioted before and after WW1?
2. Had Armenians cooperated with western powers military and administrative wise?
3. Had they fought against Ottomans in Russian, English and French armies?
4. Do you know the activities of Nazarbekov and Andranik in 1914 & 1915?
5. How many Muslim civilians had been massacred by Armenian comittees until the period of ‘Relocation’ which is up to the date of 27th of May, 1915?
6. Who surrendered Van to Russians and who burnt down and destroyed the city?
7. How many Armenians had survived WW1?
8. How many Armenian riots and uprisings had taken place between November 1914 and May 1915 when Ottoman empire had been fighting in 4 different battles?
9. Which countries had provided arms to Armenian Committees?
10. Do you know anything about the Armenians who had sacrificed their lives for France?
11. What are the reasons for Ottoman administration and people to feel hatred and hositility against Armenians?

(29th of May,2008)

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